{"id":7883,"date":"2018-08-13T11:43:28","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/?p=7883"},"modified":"2018-08-13T11:43:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:43:28","slug":"field-notes-from-matt-steiman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/field-notes-from-matt-steiman\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Notes from Matt Steiman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sustainable Agriculture in Southwest China<\/strong> by Matt Steiman<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Matt

Freshly made steamed buns for breakfast on the street.<\/p><\/div>\n

These past two weeks I was fortunate to participate in a group field study in rural Yunnan Province, located in Southwestern China.\u00a0 Professors Ann Hill (Anthropology) and Susan Rose (Sociology) and six motivated students co-wrote a grant funded by the Freeman Foundation to study cultural changes in a rural Chinese village in response to economic development.\u00a0 They were kind enough to bring me along to help build connections with village farmers and to contribute my perspective to the field study.\u00a0 Having visited the same province with Professor Hill in 2013, I jumped at the chance to see some old friends and make new ones, all the while deepening my understanding of agricultural systems in rural China.\u00a0 Yunnan Province is located east of Tibet, north of Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and south and west of the rest of China.\u00a0 The landscape is mountainous, green, moist, and culturally diverse, with 25 unique ethnic groups based out of the province.\u00a0\u00a0 Our trip began in Kunming (the largest city in Yunnan), but we spent most of our time in Fengyu, a village of about 8000 people located about two hours from the small city of Dali.\u00a0 Most of the people living in Fengyu are of the Bai ethnic minority \u2013 while the educated younger generations speak Mandarin Chinese and wear modern clothes, many senior citizens speak only Bai language and dress in traditional outfits.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel

Rachel Gross \u201919 appreciates some polyculture of rice and corn growing between houses.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

First let me say that the spirit of hospitality from Chinese citizens towards western visitors is unmatched by anything we might encounter at home.\u00a0 The people of Fengyu welcomed us into their homes with genuine interest and friendliness, and we were often greeted enthusiastically by strangers on the street.\u00a0 Our hosts were also generous with gifts, food, and their time.\u00a0 This experience left me inspired share the same welcoming spirit with foreigners I meet here in the US in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Concrete

Concrete channels minimize erosion and facilitate irrigation around mountainous Fengyu Village.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Farming in small villages in China is largely done by people working with hand tools and little to no machinery.\u00a0 While this is certainly more labor intensive than the tractor based farming system we\u2019re used to at home, human powered agriculture permits many sustainable aspects that are environmentally and socially beneficial.\u00a0 Hand labor allows farming on strips and scraps of land that are too small or too steep for tractors, thus the people of Fengyu are able to take maximum advantage of all the farmland available for food production.\u00a0 We regularly saw corn, beans, rice and other crops planted in small patches between houses (what we would think of as our \u201cyard\u201d in the USA).\u00a0 Hand-worked plots also permit mixing of many crops in a small space (known as polyculture) which enables the farmers to reduce use of outside inputs for fertility and pest management.\u00a0 It was common to see corn and beans planted together, and we also saw widely spaced corn serving as tall stakes to support a pepper trellis.\u00a0 Hand-worked fields enable the farmers to apply their care to every square foot of the landscape, and the results were impressive.\u00a0 Most fields we observed were full of tall, evenly spaced, healthy crops with relatively low weed pressure.\u00a0 On evening walks we were also happy to hear abundant populations of frogs frequenting the fields, which is a good indicator of low levels of pesticide pollution.\u00a0 Hand powered farming also uses little to no fossil fuels.\u00a0 We often saw elderly farmers hauling large basket-loads of hand harvested forage towards home on their backs.\u00a0 Several houses we visited kept one dairy cow in their courtyards for household milk production.<\/p>\n

\"A

A three wheeled electric farm cart outside a mountain temple<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

While field corn, sweet corn, rice, and blueberries dominated the farming landscape around Fengyu, the local diet was highly diverse and always interesting.\u00a0 In addition to staples and a wide variety of vegetables, offerings at the huge local farmers\u2019 market included many varieties of wild harvested mushrooms, local tea, home-made tofu, fresh and aged chicken eggs, walnuts, spices, live fish and poultry, and butchered sheep and pork.\u00a0 We met many excellent cooks in Fengyu, serving up dishes as varied as steamed buns made on the street, dumpling soup, sliced pig ear, raw pork, saut\u00e9ed wild mushrooms, and braised loach fish.\u00a0 Our favorite spot for late night street food was a barbecue stand that offered just about everything you could imagine on a stick \u2013 topped with spicy sauce and grilled to perfection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fridge

Pork, veggies, chicken feet, shrimp and more ready for grilling at the street barbecue.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The local and regional government around Fengyu has invested in sound public works projects that demonstrate an interest in environmental sustainability.\u00a0 Rainwater (there was a lot when we were there) is channeled throughout the town in a network of concrete gutters and channels.\u00a0 These help to reduce soil and road erosion, while also making water conveniently available for irrigation in the surrounding farm fields.\u00a0 Roads were in great shape, and the completion of a local sewage treatment plant last year greatly increased sanitation and quality of life while reducing pollution of a large lake downstream.\u00a0 The use of small electric vehicles is widespread in China, and I became so enamored with a commonly used three wheeled electric farm cart that I decided to bring home some parts in my suitcase and try to build one for the College Farm!<\/p>\n

\"Matt

All of the local youth in this photo grew up on a farm but plan to attend University and seek professional jobs. They hosted us for a fun game of basketball and cultural exchange.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll wrap up this report by expressing my gratitude to Professors Hill and Rose and the College for facilitating my participation in this study trip.\u00a0 It was a rare opportunity to visit a remote town, unspoiled by tourism and thus full of genuine rural people living true to their local culture.\u00a0 China is a fascinating country, full of beauty, contradictions, and changes.\u00a0 The language is difficult but approachable.\u00a0 The pace of development there is staggering \u2013 I suspect that Fengyu and its surroundings will look quite different if I am lucky enough to visit again a few years in the future.\u00a0 Finally, I\u2019m grateful to Jenn, Duane, the interns and farm students who covered my responsibilities while I sneaked off to China.\u00a0 It was a refreshing, rewarding and worthwhile trip!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sustainable Agriculture in Southwest China by Matt Steiman These past two weeks I was fortunate to participate in a group field study in rural Yunnan Province, located in Southwestern China.\u00a0 Professors Ann Hill (Anthropology) and Susan Rose (Sociology) and six… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":7889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/farm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}